CG-SKY would connect 14,000 villages: Govt

The Chhattisgarh Government's preliminary assessment, indicates that urban areas, approximately 14,000 villages will come under network connectivity and approximately 50.8 lakh Smartphones will be distributed under its CG-SKY scheme.

As per the above categorization, the Government  plans to initiate the Smartphone distribution by April 2018 and complete 100% Smartphone distribution by the end of March 2019, officials informed.

For ease of distribution and in order to ensure effective implementation, the distribution period has been divided into two stages with the first such stage witnessing distribution of approximately 48 lakh Smartphones by end of August 2018 and the second stage witnessing distribution of the remaining approximately 2,80 lakh Smartphones by end of March 2019.

The scheme would cover all villages and towns in the State of Chhattisgarh, except those villages having less than 1,000 population and not having connectivity. It may be noted that villages with less than 1,000 population, but having connectivity shall be considered for the CG-SKY, officials informed.

All Urban poor households in the state of Chhattisgarh as identified by the concerned department are to be covered under the scheme.

College Students in the state of Chhattisgarh as identified by concerned departments to the tune of approx. 5 lakh are to be covered under the scheme.

Under this scheme, one Smartphone is to be distributed to each beneficiary household and eligible College Student. The distribution will need to be done through an event/ distribution camp being organized by the State Government at each Distribution Centre (GP/ Ward/ College), officials informed.

The e-KYC/ KYC of the proposed beneficiaries needs to be done at the Distribution Centres and Smartphones/ SIM cards must be distributed only after completion of e-KYC/ KYC.

The Government  has taken a leap forward to design the Sanchar Kranti Yojna (CG-SKY) for providing a solution to improve the telecom connectivity in the state of Chhattisgarh by incentivizing the telecom operators to install Cell-Sites, they informed.

The primary objective is to ensure the mobile network connectivity is extended to all villages in state of Chhattisgarh with a population of 1000 or above as per the 2011 census and to further strengthen network coverage in all towns and villages, which already have coverage by either erecting new telecom towers or upgradation of existing towers.